Follow me on an Adventure of a Life Time as Tina, Denise and I prepare to live in Mexcico for three weeks of our summer in order to better understand the students that we teach! This life time opportunity is funded by the Tulsa Community Foundation, Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence, and delivered to us through a grant program called Fund for Teachers!

D.I.V.E. DAY

Today we went diving. Or should i say...... attempted to go diving. Bags packed, suits on, got to the dive center five minutes before they opened and got our wet suits on, our jackets and tanks on our backs.... checked our air and plodded out to the boat. First negative sign was of course the grey overcast sky. Second, was the dip and sway of the boat that tried to buck us as we boarded. Third, well maybe there were only two. There were five of us diving and a bunch of snorklers on board as well. Off we went. Around to a little cove, maybe even the same one we were at on Sat but a bit further out..... Up and down and up and down and sideways and around our little boat went on its teather. And maybe one dramanine wasn't enough..... FINALLY i flip backwards into the water. Fighting the current to stay in one place, with the group while they all got situated, was hard. Holding onto the boat platform, was nausiating. FINALLY - ready to submerge. Empty all that air, not sinking, ...... wow, sure is dark and murky under here.... wow, the visibility is worse than the lake in Arkasas.... still not sinking. I air up and surface. The sky is darker and the waves are bigger and i feel like i'm going to vomit and can't fathom getting back on the boat or even riding on the waves while they find more weight for me..... not for the chance to see..... nothing..... so three of the five of us call it quits and get back on the boat. Two went down with the Padi Master only to come up 6 minutes later and say it was a bust. No one is interested in trying our second dive shop, the snorkle girls are freaked out about the dark skies, and i'm hugging the side of the boat understanding how much sea sickness sucks. The air and spray on the ride back was a welcome relief! I think i will go back to the lake to dive.... or maybe try Mexico in December next time.... and maybe take TWO little yellow pills instead of just one........

2 comments:

Don't give up on diving in the ocean. But try it when you have assurance that the visibility will not be affected. Just looking up from twenty or thirty meters and seeing the surface as if it were within reach is simply incredible. And the fish! Below ten meters, whatever motion is on the surface does not affect you below. It is calm. Floating on the surface waiting to board in rough seas and being on board a pitching boat is no fun. Put on your wet suit on deck. There should be a hose aft to wet yourself and the suit to make it easier to slide on - and to remove the dry air from your swimsuit and skin. As soon as you enter the water, open your wet suit and flood it to remove all of the trapped air left in it from putting it on. Pull on the material over your chest to suck water in through your neckline. This is significantly more important with a full suit than with a shortie because the two-piece full suit traps more air. Trying to dive with a dry wet suit is like trying to sink while wearing water wings. After you feel the cold water everywhere on your skin, zip up the suit, put your head down, and kick to at least ten meters to squeeze the foam rubber and its spongy cells to get the last buoyancy out of the wet suit. Try again to evacuate any air bubbles still trapped inside the suit. Only then can you expect to see neutral buoyancy with an empty BC. Carrying too much weight will encourage you to put air in the BC, which will expand and contract with depth, which will bounce and rebound you up and down against your wishes. Your objective should be to control your depth with your lungs, not with weights or BC air pressure. Then, you can ball up like a sitting Buddha and hang suspended in a cloud of fish and sea turtles to just look at a world you have never imagined. When your only effort is breathing, your tank seems to last almost forever. By stalking your companions from above, you can use them to scout out extraordinary things to see on the bottom. I really hope you can find clear water.- Dad

You are the first to mention any of this about the suit. I'm not so sure it would make a huge differnce.... i am naturally boyant and can float in the ocean head up without moving. I knew going in that i wasn't weighted enough and made sure they brought extra. I'm posting pics of how bad the sea was this day - a couple of days before when i went snorkling the visibility wasn't great.... but it was MUCH better than this was. Our plan was to go again on Thursday, but since its a no guarentee dive and the rains are unpredictable we aren't going to waste the fundage and will just have to go someplace during "prime" diving rather than during the rainy season when the river turns the ocean from blue to not so blue anyway. I don't buy into the promise of.... it will be clearer tomorrow... i think its hit or miss. today it was absolutely beautiful one minute and the next the sky was brown, the wind tossing things from roof tops and the locals were convinced it was a hurricane. It passed quickly enough.... but doesn't make for reliable diving. Don't worry! no giving up! i still have incredibly fond memories of the great barrier reef to remind me what IS out there. Its just not.... here.... or at least not this month!